Reproductive Tract Infections—A Main Factor Influencing Women's Mental Status: Comparison on Depression and Anxiety between Naxi Women with and without RTIs

Objectives1) To explore the relationship between RTIs and mental status of Naxi women; 2) to compare the differences of depression & anxiety between Naxi women who have and not have RTIs; and 3) to put forward some suggestions for improving Naxi women's reproductive health in psychological point of view.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was adopted, 280 married Naxi female volunteers who aged above 20 years old were selected by cluster random sampling from the two selected villages of Lugufu Township of Yanyuan county in Sichuan. Two selfreporting scales, CES-D and SAS were used for assessment of depression and anxiety of the subjects.ResultsThe facts of mental status of Sichuan Naxi women brook no optimism. Among 280 Naxi reproductive age women who were investigated in current study, only 74 (26.4%) have no depression symptoms, and 116 (41.4%) have no anxiety symptoms. For the study population, the average total scores (TS) of CES-D was 20.1, and the average total index scores (TIS) of SAS was 50.2, and both of them were above a minimum value doubted to have symptoms. There were big differences of both average TS of CES-D and TIS of SAS between Naxi women who have and not have RTIs. Further analysis revealed that RTI was a main risk factor influencing women's mental status (OR=16.043 for depression, and OR=12.954 for anxiety). In addition, Naxi women's depression and anxiety were related to order births (≤2, OR=3.149, 95% CI: 1.228, 8.076), sex debut was younger (≤17, OR=3.043, 95% CI: 1.895, 4.884), and multiple pregnancy (≥3, OR=2.728, 95% CI: 1.990, 4.173), etc.ConclusionFor improving Naxi women's mental status, a pressing matter of the moment is for local medical persons to gain the knowledge about mental health and the diagnosis and treatment levels of psychological disorders. At the same time, psychological counselling should become a main activity of reproductive health services.